The invention relates to ballistic armor and the method of producing ballistic armor.
The efficient use of ballistic armor on military or police vehicles and equipment is a basic tenant of national defense and domestic order. Inferior armor plate and parts can result in the loss of life, very expensive equipment and ultimately battle defeat.
The process involved in the production of conventional ballistic armor plate involves several steps. Ballistic armor metal alloy is liquified in an electric or gas fired furnace in large quantities and is poured into large molds or into a continuous casting machine. The ingots produced in the molds or billets produced in the continuous casting machine are preheated to the temperature needed for mechanical rolling and are passed through rolling presses many times to a proper thickness for cutting. The metal is then cut into suitably sized blanks for further heating, rolling and finishing processes. This conventional method is very time consuming, machine and labor costly and can be economically prohibitive if only a relatively small quantity of armor plate or parts need be produced for a particular application or defense contract.
Applicants have discovered that high quality ballistic armor can be produced, having at least as good and sometimes superior ballistic properties in what heretofore were considered uneconomical relatively small quantities, by utilizing molten metal spray rapid solidification techniques.
Molten metal spray rapid solidification techniques for metal production are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. Re 31,767; 4,804,034 and 4,905,899, the disclosures of all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Further reference is made to United Kingdom Patent No. 1,472,939 which also discloses a method of making shaped articles from sprayed molten metal.